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Reduced Sentences For Ira Cop-killers Raises Outcry, Worry

DUBLIN, IRELAND — A special court on Friday sentenced four members of an Irish Republican Army gang to terms of 11 to 14 years for killing an Irish detective in a 1996 robbery.

The sentences were handed down two days after prosecutors had dropped charges of murder, which carry a minimum of a 40-year term, and let the four plead guilty to manslaughter, a decision that complicates the Northern Ireland peace effort.

Prosecutors and the police indicated that their murder case had collapsed because crucial witnesses had been intimidated and refused to repeat in court what they had told the police.

Politicians of all parties, newspaper editorials and hundreds of callers to radio stations expressed outrage, asserting that the IRA had, as it has in the past, threatened witnesses and effectively thwarted the justice system.

Government officials said the suggestion that the reduced charge was a government concession to the IRA was preposterous.

Parliament is to debate the decision next week, although the government has no authority to change it.

The three-judge court was set up to prevent the intimidation of jurors in trials that involved organized crime and terrorist attacks.

The four men sentenced Friday admitted killing Detective Sgt. Jerry McCabe in an attempt to rob a bank van in the western town of Adare. Police said the attack was to obtain money for the IRA, which has claimed responsibility.

Receiving 14-year terms were Pearse McCauley and Kevin Walsh, both of whom could be released after 10 years. Police have said Walsh did the shooting. A sentence of 12 years was given to Jeremiah Sheehy and an 11-year term to Michael O'Neill.